Portions of this disclosure are described in terms of, e.g., encoded signals for digital designs, product packaging (sometimes just referred to herein as “packaging” or “package”) and other objects, e.g., labels, product hang tags, logos, etc. These encoding techniques can be used, e.g., to alter or transform how color inks are printed on various physical substrates. The alterations or transformations preferably result in a printed design carrying machine readable indicia on a surface of a physical object.
Various forms of signal encoding (or “embedding”) include, e.g., “steganographic encoding” and “digital watermarking.” Digital watermarking is a process for transforming physical or electronic media to embed a machine-readable code (or “auxiliary data”) into the media. In some cases the media is modified such that the embedded code is obscured, yet may be detected through an automated detection process. Digital watermarking is often applied to electronic or physical objects such as printed objects, images, audio signals, and video signals. However, it may also be applied to other types of objects, including, e.g., product packaging, electronics such as circuit boards and CPUs, stickers, logos, product hang tags, line-art, software, multi-dimensional graphics models, and surface textures of such objects.
In this document we use the terms “digital watermark” and “watermark” (and various forms thereof) interchangeably.
Auxiliary data embedding systems typically include two components: an encoder (or embedder) that embeds the auxiliary signal in a host image or object, and a decoder (or detector) that detects and reads the embedded auxiliary signal from the host image or object. The encoder may embed the auxiliary signal by altering or transforming a host image or object to carry the auxiliary data. The detection component analyzes a suspect image, object or signal to detect whether an auxiliary signal is present, and if so, extracts or reads information carried in it.
Several particular digital watermarking and auxiliary data embedding techniques have been developed. The reader is presumed to be familiar with the literature in this field. Particular techniques for embedding and detecting imperceptible digital watermarks are detailed in the assignee's patent documents including US Published Patent Application No. 20150156369; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/725,399, filed May 29, 2015 (now U.S. Pat. No. 9,635,378), Ser. No. 14/724,729, filed May 28, 2015 (published as US 2016-0217547 A1), and Ser. No. 14/842,575, filed Sep. 1, 2015 (published as US 2017-0004597 A1); International Application No. PCT/US2015/44904, filed Aug. 12, 2015 (published as WO 2016025631 A1) and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,054,461, 7,286,685, and 9,129,277. Related technology is detailed in Assignee's U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/073,483, filed Mar. 17, 2016 (published as US 2016-0275326 A1). Each of the patent documents mentioned in this paragraph are hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, including all drawings and any appendices.
Further aspects, features and advantages will become even more apparent with reference to the following detailed description, claims and accompanying drawings.